#Tag · bonfire.cafe

@techwerkers@mastodon.nl · last week

Do you work at ASML? And are you worried you might get laid off?

Come talk to Techwerkers! Send us a DM here or join the coalition: https://techwerkers.nl/en/join/ A fellow tech worker will be happy to help you figure out exactly:

* What are your rights?
* What's going to happens when, and how long can it take?
* How can you organize together with your coworkers to resist?

Above all: Don't sign anything until you've figured out where you stand!!

Do you work in tech? Join the Tech Workers Coalition today! You'll stand stronger together with other workers.

Tech Workers Coalition

Join the Tech Workers Coalition

@techwerkers@mastodon.nl · last week

Earlier today the ASML Board of Management announced its financial results for 2025.

Turns out, the semiconductor industry is doing pretty well! And ASML can lift along on this success:

"The semiconductor ecosystem is poised to experience significant growth in the coming years, and ASML is well positioned to leverage this positive development."

@techwerkers@mastodon.nl replied · last week

But... that same Board of Management has decided to use this as an occasion to try to lay off masses of workers. Around 1700, it estimates. And more of those job losses the want to force on *YOU* here in the Netherlands

@techwerkers@mastodon.nl · last week

@techwerkers@mastodon.nl replied · last week

Do you work at ASML? And are you worried you might get laid off?

Come talk to Techwerkers! Send us a DM here or join the coalition: https://techwerkers.nl/en/join/ A fellow tech worker will be happy to help you figure out exactly:

* What are your rights?
* What's going to happens when, and how long can it take?
* How can you organize together with your coworkers to resist?

Above all: Don't sign anything until you've figured out where you stand!!

Do you work in tech? Join the Tech Workers Coalition today! You'll stand stronger together with other workers.

Tech Workers Coalition

Join the Tech Workers Coalition

@techwerkers@mastodon.nl · last week

ASML: Business is going great! We're growing!
Also ASML: Let's lay off 1,700 people 🤪

Announcement: https://www.asml.com/en/news/press-releases/2026/strengthening-focus-on-engineering-and-innovation

ASML

ASML Statement on Strengthening Focus on Engineering and Innovation

@techwerkers@mastodon.nl replied · last week

Earlier today the ASML Board of Management announced its financial results for 2025.

Turns out, the semiconductor industry is doing pretty well! And ASML can lift along on this success:

"The semiconductor ecosystem is poised to experience significant growth in the coming years, and ASML is well positioned to leverage this positive development."

@techwerkers@mastodon.nl · last week

ASML: Business is going great! We're growing!
Also ASML: Let's lay off 1,700 people 🤪

Announcement: https://www.asml.com/en/news/press-releases/2026/strengthening-focus-on-engineering-and-innovation

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/us-startup-substrate-announces-chipmaking-tool-that-it-says-will-rival-asml-2025-10-28/

ASML

ASML Statement on Strengthening Focus on Engineering and Innovation

The Japan Times

@thejapantimes@mastodon.social · 2 months ago

A team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML have reverse-engineered its extreme ultraviolet lithography machines and built a prototype for China using parts from older ASML machines. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2025/12/18/tech/china-west-ai-chips/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #business #tech #china #ai #chipmakers #huawei #asml #us

Hacker News

@h4ckernews@mastodon.social · 3 months ago

US startup Substrate announces chipmaking tool that it says will rival ASML

#HackerNews #Substrate #ASML #chipmaking #technology #innovation #startup #semiconductor

@fj@mastodon.social · 3 months ago

The whole tech blogosphere has been talking about Substrate this week.

But on a less snarky note, I'm wondering if they really have figured out something new or if it's just Thiel burning cash on something that has been abandoned in the past for good reasons.

All players in the lithography space have looked at X-Ray lithography but did not pursue it because of the required mask precision, their cost and slower throughputs. And none of Substrate's communications seem to acknowledge that.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/marchijink_euv-euv-ai-activity-7389260758053724160-gDDI

@fj@mastodon.social replied · 3 months ago

Marc Hijink who wrote the book on #ASML has a great post on why X-Ray lithography was not pursued.

Summary of the post: Substrate, a San Francisco-based startup, has raised $100 million to challenge ASML’s monopoly on EUV photolithography—a technology critical for producing advanced AI chips. ASML’s EUV machines are currently the only tools capable of mass-producing such chips, and the company dominates a market valued at €360 billion. Substrate aims to revive X-ray lithography, which uses wavelengths under 4 nm (finer than EUV’s 13.5 nm), to enable even smaller chip features. However, X-ray lithography was previously abandoned by the industry, including ASML, due to high costs, the need for extremely precise 1:1 masks, and proximity challenges.
While alternatives like e-beam direct write were deemed too slow, EUV became the standard despite its complexity. Substrate claims its new tool can match the speed of leading-edge fabs, addressing both resolution and production efficiency. ASML itself has only explored X-ray for inspection, not chip printing, after EUV proved viable.
Substrate’s vision extends to building its own fabs, potentially reducing reliance on TSMC and restoring U.S. leadership in semiconductor production—though details on how it will overcome past obstacles remain sparse. — Summary of the post: Substrate, a San Francisco-based startup, has raised $100 million to challenge ASML’s monopoly on EUV photolithography—a technology critical for producing advanced AI chips. ASML’s EUV machines are currently the only tools capable of mass-producing such chips, and the company dominates a market valued at €360 billion. Substrate aims to revive X-ray lithography, which uses wavelengths under 4 nm (finer than EUV’s 13.5 nm), to enable even smaller chip features. However, X-ray lithography was previously abandoned by the industry, including ASML, due to high costs, the need for extremely precise 1:1 masks, and proximity challenges. While alternatives like e-beam direct write were deemed too slow, EUV became the standard despite its complexity. Substrate claims its new tool can match the speed of leading-edge fabs, addressing both resolution and production efficiency. ASML itself has only explored X-ray for inspection, not chip printing, after EUV proved viable. Substrate’s vision extends to building its own fabs, potentially reducing reliance on TSMC and restoring U.S. leadership in semiconductor production—though details on how it will overcome past obstacles remain sparse.

#euv #euv #ai #lithography #substrate #asml #photolithography #focus | Marc Hijink | 13 comments

Substrate, a San Francisco startup, raised $100 million to develop a potential rival to #EUV photolithography, in which the Dutch juggernaut ASML has a monopoly valued at 360 billion euro. To this day, ASML's #EUV machine is the only tool capable of producing highly advanced #AI chips at scale. The U.S. dropped the ball on #lithography long ago, but #Substrate sees an opportunity and even dreams of building its own fabs to replace TSMC. The goal: for "America to regain its rightful place as the leader in semiconductor production". For its high ambitions, Substrate is light on detail. It uses X-ray lithography with a wavelength of less than 4 nanometers. That allows it to print finer details on a chip, even smaller than EUV's 13.5 nm wavelength. It's not the first time X-ray lithography has emerged as an option. The semiconductor industry (especially IBM and Philips) researched it in the eighties and early nineties, when DUV, with a 193 nm wavelength, was about to run out of steam. All players, including #ASML, dismissed X-ray lithography because it requires very expensive mask materials and 1:1 scaling. This means the masks have to be extremely accurate, which makes them even more expensive. The mask also needs to be in close proximity to the wafer, which complicates the process. Other alternatives, like e-beam direct write, were also considered too slow for mass production of chips. That’s why EUV #photolithography turned out to be the most economically viable option for the foreseeable future. Even though it's a extremely complex machine with a light source that uses exploding tin droplets to create EUV light, it is the only tool that is fast enough for modern fabs. Substrate says it has built a tool that 'can meet the throughput of a leading-edge fab'. Chip production is not only about resolution, as former board member Frits van Hout explained in '#Focus, the ASML Way'. In any chip fab, adding value and speed of production is key. “Keep on stamping, is all we hear.” As a sidenote: ASML is researching the use of X-ray for inspection and metrology, not for printing chips. The company stopped its research on free-electron lasers (FELs, which are capable of creating shorter wavelengths) in 2015, when EUV turned out to be feasible. The New York Times https://lnkd.in/e2J9AB9i The Wall Street Journal https://lnkd.in/eif-Cq3r Financial Times https://lnkd.in/ev9B-PtP | 13 comments on LinkedIn

Wladimir Mufty

@wlaatje@social.edu.nl · 4 months ago

❣️ Stop putting people into boxes
❣️ Stop holding on to old assumptions
❣️ Stop saying someone is either a thinker or a doer
❣️ Stop believing a techie can’t lead
❣️ Stop claiming someone “lacks experience” for a certain role
❣️ Stop relying on HR manuals from 1983

👀 Take a fresh look today at the people working on tech. You might discover not just a programmer, engineer, or developer…but the next visionary and leader who could one day guide your organization‼️ #ASML #CTO

All Europeans 🇪🇺 boosted

Erik Jonker

@ErikJonker@mastodon.social · 5 months ago

Great news for European Tech.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/asml-becomes-mistral-ais-top-shareholder-after-leading-latest-funding-round-2025-09-07/
#eu #europe #asml #mistral

Erik Jonker

@ErikJonker@mastodon.social · 5 months ago

Great news for European Tech.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/asml-becomes-mistral-ais-top-shareholder-after-leading-latest-funding-round-2025-09-07/
#eu #europe #asml #mistral

https://podcasts.apple.com/ch/podcast/bits-chips/id1552172113

@fj@mastodon.social · 5 months ago

Incredibly insightful episode of Bits & Chips on the Trumpf collaboration with ASML.

Learned a ton about Trumpf's challenges to bring seed lasers to the fab such as having to keep up with ASMLs product pace, dealing with contaminations in the fab and phasing out the Cymer seed lasers for a Trumpf in-house design. I did not realize that the EUV light source was now fully European-produced.

#Trumpf #ASML

https://www.asml.com/en/news/press-releases/2024/dutch-governments-updated-export-license-requirement

@fj@mastodon.social · last year

The Dutch government today published an updated license requirement regarding the export of immersion #DUV semiconductor equipment. #ASML believes this requirement will harmonize the approach for issuing export licenses.

"Since this is a technical change, this announcement is not expected to have any impact on our financial outlook for 2024 or for our longer-term scenarios as communicated during our Investor Day in November 2022. "

ASML

Statement regarding Dutch government's updated export license requirement